Destroyed ISIS-vehicles outside Samarra.
Iraqi security forces have repelled a large-scale attack by militants on the central city of Samarra, officials say. Gunmen travelling in dozens of vehicles attacked checkpoints on the east and west on Thursday morning before taking control of several areas.
The army responded with helicopter strikes in which officials said about 80 insurgents died. Otherc vsources talk about at least 40 insugernets killed and some 20 soldiesr and policemen. A curfew has been imposed on the city and reinforcements sent from the capital Baghdad.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Sunni militants and tribesmen allied to the jihadist Islamist State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have seized parts of the city of Ramadi and most of Falluja.
Witnesses and security sources said dozens of heavily armed militants attacked checkpoints and police stations on the outskirts of Samarra early on Thursday, before moving into the city. The assailants seized control of the municipality building and university, raising the black flag associated with jihadist groups over both buildings, police told the Reuters news agency.
In the Anbar province ISIS has been fighting the Iraqi army and tribal forces since December 2013. The uprising started after the government violently suppressed protests in this Sunni province
against the way Baghdad neglects it. Government troops, among other things, raided the house of a Sunni parliamentarian, killing his brother and five guards. ISIS after that took over parts of the cities of Ramadi and Falluja and is keeping some areas of both citeis to this day.
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